HEYYYYY FANNNSSSS: RECAP. Handshake City. Pens WIN. Win Series 4-2.

This game was different than the rest of the series, yet in the same way, it felt the same. The Penguins continued their effort from Game 5 for 50 minutes in this game and it felt like it was over, but Columbus didn't ever go away. Stick tap to that franchise, except Brandon Dubinsky, fuck that guy. Sure the Penguins could've played better, but its a race to 4 and the Penguins got to 4 first and they move on to the Metropolitan Division Finals. Brandon Sutter and Joe Vitale left this game early, Sutter was on the bench at the end and was on the ice for handshakes, Vitale never returned. Pens get a few days off to await the result of the NY Rangers-Flyers series.

The beginning of this game felt a lot like the 2nd and 3rd periods of Game 5. The Penguins were flying with the puck. After the first set of shifts, Byslma went back to 14-87-71 and it worked. Sid took the entire city of Columbus with him with the puck and ended up getting the puck to Kunitz who made an unreal pass to Geno for his first goal of the series. Bob was sitting so far back in his net. 1-0 Pens. Then a few moments later, the Penguins got a Power play. On the power play, the passing was incredible. Niskanen and Sid made a few good passes and Sid fed Geno in the high slot who glitched one bar down on Bob to make it 2-0 Pens. Some reason, the Jackets never called a timeout. The rest of the period was basically all Pittsburgh. Columbus went 10:04 without a shot until they received a late power play, but the Penguins killed it like it was nothing.

The Columbus power play carried over into the 2nd and just as the Stempniak minor was expiring, Brandon Sutter basically took the puck right off of James Wisniewski who made a horrible play on the puck. Sutter and Stempniak came in on a 2 on 0 with Bob, Sutter did his patented move to the backhand roof job and made it 3-0 Pens just 34 seconds into the 2nd. At that point, you felt like the Penguins were gonna run away with it and it continued. Later in the period, somehow Evgeni Malkin and James Neal got a 2 on 1. Jack Johnson played it horrendously and Geno came into the slot and shot it near post on Bob. Hat trick for 71 and 4-0 Penguins.

At that point, you could've heard a pin drop and you felt like you were at a funeral and the final nail was put into the coffin. The Penguins went into intermission up 4-0.

As the 3rd went on, Columbus took a couple really stupid penalties that you knew were just out of frustration but they killed it off. At the tail end of the second one, some jobber for the Jackets took the puck behind Fleury and kind of held Letang's stick, he was careful so that he didn't take a penalty and whoever it was fed Fedor Tyutin who sniped MAF perfectly to make it 4-1. At that point you felt, whatever and knew CBJ had to score some bullshit Shorthanded goal because thats how the series has gone. Then a couple minutes later, Paul Martin took a penalty and on that power play, someone shot one with Brandon Chodeinsky screening Fleury. The puck either hit Dubinsky or MAF didn't see it clearly and it trickled by. No clue but 4-2 and you started to worry a little as there was like 6:00 left at that time. Then right off the draw, Matt Calvert caught someone flat footed and almost scored but Fleury made a huge save. A few minutes later, the Pens left Nick Foligno wide open in the slot who redirected a perfect pass past Fleury to make it 4-3. You really started to worry at that point. The Blue Jackets kept coming but the Penguins answered every time from there on. Kris Letang made 3-4 big blocks and Fleury was good. Game.

1. Evgeni Malkin

2. Fedor Tyutin

3. Matt Niskanen

Honorary star to Marc-Andre Fleury. Pens don't win this series without him

Notes:

Evgeni Malkin finished the series with 3 goals and 4 assists.
Sidney Crosby had 7 assists, so despite not scoring any goals, was still > 1 point per game.
Marc-Andre Fleury had a .908 save percentage in this series, but when it was 5 on 5, he had a .948 save percentage. That is unreal. He's doing exactly what a goaltender has to do in the playoffs, give your team a chance to win.
Kris Letang has gotten better as the series went on, made some big plays down the stretch.
Robert Bortuzzo's impact didn't go unnoticed, despite the semi meltdown in the last 10 minutes, the Penguins played two of their most disciplined games with him in the lineup.
Dan Bylsma deserves a little bit of credit after Game 4, he made some line adjustments that worked and kind of got CBJ off their game, he also found something in their forecheck and the Penguins got the puck out of their own zone with ease in Games 5 and 6.